WORCESTER, Mass. – The Worcester State University women's lacrosse team hosted a women's lacrosse community clinic for the Worcester area schools last week.

The Worcester State squad reinforced and taught a variety of skills to roughly 19 female high school lacrosse players at various stations around the field before ending the workout with a high school 7-versus-7 "settled" team scrimmage, which is something that most lacrosse players are unexposed to at the high school level.

This year marked the fifth consecutive season that the women's lacrosse team has hosted a skills clinic for the area schools that are just developing lacrosse.

"It was an excellent opportunity for our young team to be around the experienced and enthusiastic women's lacrosse team," commented head women's lacrosse coach at Auburn High School, Tess Jarvis. "The positive attitude, encouragement and enthusiasm made this experience fun and I hope we can continue to do this clinic yearly."

Stations included an area where girls could sharpen their shooting skills, work on dodging opponents, conditioning, passing and draw controls, along with a "fun fit" station and a defensive tactics segment.

Auburn High Schools women's lacrosse captain, Julianna Martinelli stated, "It was really fun and the drills that we did today were very helpful."

Mackenzie Little, a junior midfielder for the Worcester State Women's Lacrosse team, stated "It was exciting to see high school athletes so eager to learn more about lacrosse. I could see the potential in every single one of those girls, and that just made it more fun to teach them for the little time we had."

The goalkeepers even had one-on-one sessions with their older counterparts where they learned about clearing and stopping the ball in all quadrants of the net.

Goalie Shea Jarvis said she looks forward to playing lacrosse in college. "I found the tips on taking the draw very useful."

"It's great to see the excitement on the girls' faces as well as our team as they go through the stations.  It is great development not only for the high school athletes to learn new skills, but for our girls to be able to teach the sport they love." stated Worcester State's head women's lacrosse coach, Kelly Downs.

"At the end of the clinic, the Auburn team was planning on when they were going to come to our next game as well as when our Worcester State team was going to attend one of theirs.  We hope to continue this relationship going forward." concluded Downs.

Women's Lacross Clinic